Tag for floor coverings or the like



. Sept. 27, 1938. 3 ROSENTHAL 2,131,543

'l/ZW W WM TAG FOR FLOOR COVERINGS OR THE LIKE Filed March 24, 1938 4 511011 section With the back of the floor covering. face [2 of such section isprint-receptive and may Patented Sept. 27, 1938 i i 2,131,543-

UNITED STATES PATENT orriizs TAG FOR FLOOR-CQVERINGS OR THE LIKE Sidney Rosenthal, Great Neck, N. Ygassignor to Pilgrim Badge and Label Corporation, Cambridge, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application March 24, 1938, Serial No. 197,847

2 Claims. (01. 40-2) This invention relates to tags more particularly tageously be made more flexible-than the fixable of the kind to be attached to floor coverings, such tag section, which should be oa d suffi n y as rugs and carpets, or to like articles of comthickly with the adhesively activatable substance merce that are displayed for sale with a tag that to ensure the desired tenacious fixation thereof 5 serves to identify the manufacturer as well as to the back of the 1"loor'co'vering.- I this latter to give the salesman and the customer such inconnection, it: might be observed that the necesformation as price, dimensions, etc. Such tags, ry mparat v ly i k o n f he usual which are commonly made of textile fabric or adhesively activatable substances on the inner cloth soas not to be torn in being graspedor face of the fixable section stiifens it considerably.

handled repeatedly in association with a com- Nevertheless, because thefiap p n or e i 1 paratively heavy rug or similar article, frequently is comparatively flexible, itbends or flexes read-, comprise a portion adhesively united or bonded ily, as desired, at a region thereof immediately firmly to the back of the rug and a flap or porbeyond the boundary of the adhesive joint formed tion projecting beyond the margin of the rug. between the two tag sections and may thus droop The portion united to the rug usually carries the freely or be bent readily upwardly when it is to 15 name of the manufacturer and/ or his trademark be inspected for the particular information conand is intended to remain permanently united cerning the rug with which it is associated and to the back of the rug after the rug is sold. The which may form part of a pile. flap portion presents to ready view, even when With the foregoing and other features and obthe rug or like article forms part of a pile, suchjects in V ew, the invent on he e f Will now be 20 desired information as the manufacturer and/or described in further detail with particular refhis trademark, preferably on one face, and such erence to the accompanying drawing, wherein,- desired information as the price, dimensions, etc., Figure 1 shows in perspective the completed preferably on the opposite face. tag hereof ready for association with a rug or The tag of the present invention is of the the like. 25 foregoing type and is characterized by the ease F gu e 2 s a lo ud s o through the and economy withwhich it may be manufactag on the line 2-2, of Figure 1. tured and by the satisfactory results had there- Figure 3 shows the tag hereof after it-has been from in service. It comprises two pieces or secattached to a rug, the flap portion being in natu- 0 tions, namely, a fabric or cloth section, which rally drooping position and one of its faces being I is adapted to be adhesively united to the back exposed to view.

face of the floor covering, and a double-texture Figure A is a similar view but showing the flap fabric or cloth section, which is marginally bondportion bent upwardly to exposeto. view its oped to the first-named section and is adapted to, posite face.

constitute the flap portion of the tag. The first- Figure 5 -is a miniature perspective View of a 35 named tag section, which may for convenience pile of rugs carrying the tags hereof.

of designation be termed the fixable tag section The tag shown in Figure. 1. comprises a subby reason of its permanent fixation to the back stantially rectangular cloth piece or fixable secof the floor covering, is print-receptive on its tion I 0 whose inner face (i. e. the face to be outer face and carries the desired indicia imadhesivelyunited to the back of arug) carries printed thereon, whereas the inner face of sucha substantial or thick coating H of normally section is coated with normally non-adhesive non-adhesive but adhesively activatable subbut adhesively activatable substance for the purstance for ensuring the desired firm union or pose of enabling the desired adhesive union of bond to the'back of a rug or the like. The outer The second-named tag section or flap portion be imprinted with the rug-manufacturers name mpr a m r inal p r i n tha laps and is and/or trademark designated as XYZ. Such adhesively united to the marginal portion-of the printing may be done on a continuous or lengthy adhesive-coated face of the fixable tag section. fabri Sh et before ft r. th coating H has ,Because the p portion s a lex r been applied. and the coated sheet then cut up fabric, it may be readily and economically made into a number of sections ID; or a continuous to be print-receptive on both its faces and thus or lengthy fabric sheet may first be coated, cut to carry the desired indicia imprinted thereon. up into the sections l0, and the coated sections Moreover, the flap portion or section, although printed individually'o n their uncoated faces I2.

a double-texture fabric, may readily and advan- The latter procedure is usually practiced when 55 one establishment does the fabric-coating and sells the coated fabric to the tag manufacturer, who may proceed to cut the coated fabric into the individual sections I and suitably imprint such sections or who may cut the fabric into narrow continuous bands or strips, suitably imprint such bands or strips continuously, and finally cut them into the printed and coated individual sections I0.

Various substances may be used for the coating I l, including such substances as are adhesively activated by water or by volatile organic liquids. However, it is preferable thatthe coating be a material or compound, such as rosincompounded rubber, that is thermoplastic or ac: tivated by heat, as by the heat of a sadiron preheated to usual clothes-ironing temperatures, If desired, various thermoplastic or thermoadhesive resins or gums, such as the polyvinyl resins or compounds thereof, may serve as the coating II. The coating materials indicated may be applied to the fabric sheet in the form of liquid solutions containing volatile liquid solvents or in heatliquified condition and the coating then dried or set so as to enable the finished labels hereof to be stacked for packaging and shipment in normally non-adhesive condition. Because of the substantial or thick coating H carried by the fabric section It, it is stiffened markedly. A substantial or thick coating is necessary, sincethere is tendency for the coating material to be dissipated to a considerable extent in the back of the rug; and, unless sufiicient coating mate rial is provided to allow for such dissipation, the

' fabric section I I cannot be united or bonded with the desired tenacity of firmness to the back of the rug. 7 e

The flap portion or section of the tag hereof consists of a double-texture M, which may be of approximately the same shape and dimensions as the fixable section l0. As appears more particularly in Figures 3 and 4, a face i5 of such section may be imprinted with the rug-manufacturers name and/ or trade-mark XYZ, whereas its other face l6 may be imprinted with such information appurtenant to the rug as its price, dimensions, etc.- texture fabric, such as'is suitable for thesection M, is available on the market at comparatively low cost and usually comprises individual, fabric layers 11 that are comparatively'thin and iIiEX- pensive and are finished, by reason of particular weave, for printing on only one face. It is, accordingly, the unfinished faces of the two 'fabric layers I! that are adhesively united in face-to face relationship to constitute the double-texture fabric. The adhesive, such as rubber latex or rubber cement, suitable for such purpose exists as a comparatively very thin film l8 between the fabric layers and, accordingly, does not materially stiffen the double-texture fabric, which, as already indicated,'is preferably distinctly more flexible than the coated fabricsection .llJ. The comparativelyvery thin film I8 is necessary to unite the fabric layers l'l into a double-texture fabric whose layers have no tendency whatever to part or separate in use.

The tag sections l4 may be cut from a continuous or lengthy double-texture fabric sheet after the latter has been suitably imprinted on both faces; or the tag manufacturer may out such sheet, as it is purchased by him on the open market, into continuous bands or strips that may be suitably imprinted on fabric or cloth piece 'Doubleboth; faces and then cut into the tag sections M; or, if desired, indi-' when the coating II is of a character to require adhesive activation by a volatile liquid, the appropriate liquid is applied thereto before the marginal portion IQ of the'section i4 is superposed thereto,hprefera'bly under more or less pressure. The two-sectional tags as thus produced may then be packaged and shipped to the rug manufacturer.

In attaching the tag to a rug R, the tag section It is placed on the rug so that its coating ll makes contact with the rug back and its fiap portion or section l4 projects beyond an edge e of the rug, as depicted best in Figures 3 and 4. Thereupon, a suitably preheated sadiron is passed over the outer face l2 of the section lll a suflicient number of times to transform the coating II to an adhesively-activated state such as to ensure the desired firm union or bond of the section ID to the rug back. Should the coating ll require adhesive activation by a volatile liquid, such liquid may be applied thereto in amount to induce the adhesiveness or tackiness desired therein, whereupon the tag may then be attached, preferably under some pressure, to the rug back with its section I4 protruding, as already indicated, beyond the edge e of the rug. It is preferable that the adhesive joint 20 formed between the lapping portions of the two tag sections occur immediately beyond the edge e of the rug. This means that upon sale of the rug, the flap portion l4 together with the joint '20 may be cut away, as by scissors, to the veryedge e'of the rug, thereby leaving permanently attached to the rug the tag section 10, which carries the rug-manufacturers name and/or trade-mark and which, be-

ing adhesively united. throughout its inner face to the rug back, does not present any loose or starting edgeportions that can be readily grasped, as by children, or' that may be accidentally caught and thus facilitate undesired removal or stripping of such section from the rug during its use. In some instances, however, as when the rug is sold onapproval,v the tag Section. N may be permitted to remain after such sale ofthe rug, in which case, when the. 'rug is laid or put to use, it may be folded at the edgee under the rug and thus hidden from view.

Because of the relative flexibility of the tag section l4, it droops or flexes freely along, a region is, immediately beyond-or outside the boundary tag sections, The manner in which the tags of a. successionof tagged rugs in a pile may be readily inspected 'for the information contained on their projecting flap. portions or sections 14 is'illustrated in Figure'5. The fiap portions of each of the tags may easily be bent upwardly, as shown in Figure 4, to enable the ascertainment of theinformation presented on its face normally hidden from View. I V v V 7 It is to be understood, that the inventive principles'hereof might be embodied in tags other than .the typical one specifically described and illustrated herein and that the appended claims 2,131,543 should be construed as broadly as the prior art permits.

I claim:

1. A tag for floor coverings or the like, comprising a substantially rectangular fabric section adapted to be adhesively united to the back face of the floor covering, said section being print-receptive on its outer face and carrying indicia imprinted thereon and being coated on its inner face with normally non-adhesive but adhesively activatable substance, and a substantially rectangular, relatively more flexible, double-texture fabric section which is of a width substantially similar to that of said first-named section and a marginal portion of which laps and is adhesively united to a marginal portion of the adhesivecoated face of said first-named fabric section, said second-named fabric section being print-recep tive on both its faces and carrying indicia imprinted thereon and said second-named section being adapted to constitute a flap projecting from said floor covering when the coated face of said ing a fabric section, ceptive on its outer face and carrying indicia im first-named section is adhesivelyunited to a back 7 marginal zone of said floor covering.

2. The combination with a floor covering or the like, of a substantially rectangular tag compris said section being print-reprinted thereon and being coated on its inner face with normally non-adhesive but adhesively activatable substance in adhesively unitedirelationship With a marginal zone of the floor-covering back, excepting at a marginal portion of said section adjacent to the edge of the floor covering, and a relatively more flexible, double-texture fabric section a marginal portion of which laps and is adhesively united to the coating on said marginal portion of said first-named fabric section, said second-named fabric section constituting a flap flexing readily at a region thereof immediately beyond the boundary of the adhesive joint between said sections.

SIDNEY ROSENTHAL. 

